Founding: Pay For Mechwarrior Online Now, If You Want?

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The vigilant newsbots at BluesNews have noticed that Mechwarrior Online is rolling out a program of “founders packages” for people to purchase in-game cash and privileges in the forth-coming free-to-play mech game. Full details and some comments, as well as a big chunk of recent game footage, below.

Mechwarrior Online has been in beta since the middle of May, and there’s no word on when that will expand, exactly. That said, this Founders’ Package stuff gets you access from August 7th, so perhaps not too long after that.

$120 but you get $80 worth of in game currency? Hmm! I suppose the premium account stuff will end up being worth it, allowing players to advance and earn money faster. But we shall see.

• Founder’s Tag – sets your status apart from the crowd & get noticed in-game and on the forums.

• Early access to the game along with Founder’s assets availability starts August 7th.

I’m very interested in getting my hands on this after having spent a few months in Perpetuum. To get to some robot fighting that is first-person and more skill-led is going to be an interesting contrast, even if the MMO and meta-game elements look like they have the potential to be pretty thin.

In a role based game, I was really expecting objects with turrets or something.

What’s the point of big and small mechs if you don’t have roles where you need someone good at taking out static defenses, ones good for locating what to destroy, and others to protect the turtle breakers?

I think a capture and hold type gameplay is much better suited to the mech designs than simple TDM.

Seems pretty bland. They say that somehow the tiny scout mechs are going to be viable, though… Really sounds to me that that’s just what you’ll be stuck with until you cough up $15 for a bigger mech.

You can’t kill the enemies if you don’t know where they are, You can’t kill the enemies if they can run faster, turn faster, you are liable to get blindsided. If there was a good player in a light vs a good player in an assault, I would bet on the light.

50 tons is not a lot for a machine like this, really. Also, the only thing that makes legged war machines viable over tracked ones is significantly enhanced maneuverability. I wouldn’t call it doom-like, but these definitely seem more maneuverable than the mechs of old, which I am totally pleased by.

I’m definitely trying the game for free before I drop even $30 on it, though.

The funny thing is that in the tabletop game, Mechs are very agile, and can climb, jump, pick up things if they have hands, grapple, punch and generally behave in a very humanoid fashion. It was the Mechwarrior series that dumbed it down to make them into taller, walkier tanks.

Easier to say then done. In table top game such manurers were extremely risky belonging to “last resort” category. Yes, Mechs could do all the things you talk about, but they were walking tanks anyway.

You need a few levels of piloting XP to reliably pull off more complex moves, but that’s part of what made Battletech so interesting. An amateur pilot in an exceptionally powerful mech could sometimes be beaten by an exceptional pilot in a mediocre one, simply because the experienced pilot has a far higher chance of pulling off fast turns, melee attacks, DFA jumps and so on.

Really, you think that felt like “the guy from doom”? It feels quite cumbersome and slow, same as I remembered the old Mechwarrior games. Please don’t watch the Hawken trailers, or the movement might give you a fulminating heart attack.

The first thought I had when I got into World of Tanks was: Man.. This game would be so much better if there were mechs instead of tanks.
Then I cried a little because the days of mech games were over a decade ago. Now this… I’m really looking forward to it. If I learned one thing from MW4 and Living Legends it’s that all out mech brawls are AWESOME. When staying alive is super important (not sure if this game has the World of Tanks style thing where if you die you’re out) the gameplay pace slows down a whole lot and tactics become far more important than just all out pewpew the way most TDM games are set up.

I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve played it, but for now I’m optimistic. They will probably add some more game modes at some point. Also, the Razer Mechwarrior Online stick-screen-doohickey. I..Must..Have..It…

As long as I can join the games my friends are playing in (WoT, WTF?), and I don’t have to buy ammo with real dollars, that is a solid comparison. Aside from not being able top lay with friends and the constant sound of ‘ricochet!’, Word of Tanks was great.

From what I’ve seen and rumours I’ve heard, it does not play as World of Tanks at all. While it has similarities in the team-based gameplay, metagame and the importance of positioning and even angling of your vehicle, it plays out quite differently.

Having played World of Tanks, I know it can be quite deadly, but it’s also a game of patience. Find a good position, wait for scouts, then pound the enemy lines at extreme-range, or ambush them out of bushes and buildings. A few hits and you’re dead. Mechs seems a lot more durable from all the videos they’ve shown, featuring much more knife-fighting, mech-dueling and circle-strafing, combined with long range missile support and snipers.

While WoT certainly sports many similar things to that, and knife-fighting tanks is possible, with lumbering atlases taking no shit, and superspeeded light mechs who’ll hide hunder your legs, I think the combat will be quite a lot more intense and personal than WoT.

Progress faster is pay to win. Tribes:Ascend is pay to win. Facts. Seriously these recent myths about how “sidegrades” are okay and “if you are able to unlock it ingame it is okay” are fucking annoying. Shit like that encourages the devs to make the game grindy. Most of the time (as it is with T:A and WoT and Mechwarrior) you cannot reasonably make enough “ingame money” to unlock anything worthwhile.

So what do you propose? Invest in a top-notch game, then set out a tip jar in the hope of recouping their investment? Pay to accelerate progress is NOT pay to win as long as the acceleration doesn’t buy you in-game power. In Tribes, it only buys you versatility. The upgrade system is the only exception, but those upgrades fly by so fast now that they don’t even matter (and they’re cheap with XP too).

As for MWO, you don’t buy ANY in-game advantages with real world money. ‘Mechs come fully equipped and ready to fight out of the box, and you only need one (of any sort) to compete effectively. I’m not sure how many ‘Mechs you’ll start off with when it launches, but it’s not like you need a whole hangar-full to progress; you just need one. Unlike WoT, there’s no “tier” system, either, and all ‘Mechs are viable in combat (provided that you know how to use them) from square one.

If you have doubts, the good news is that you can play them for free. If you get your face stomped, though, don’t assume it’s because your opponent had the Spinfusor of Much 1337; they were probably just a lot better than you.

if you play it and enjoy it put 30$ or 60$ down on some in game crap. it is a AAA title and they need to make cash some how.

I look at it this way Good FTP game’s ((not WOT)) have a model that lets you play the game for free but you have to invest alot of time in order to be up to snuff, unlocking the game as you go ((and keeping there servers full and looking popular.

or you can Buy the stuff acentualy Buying the full game

I put $30 on tribes as i wish to seaport the game and the Devs …. I don’t use most of the crap i unlocked with it.

If you’re European you should probably be a little wary of this; the devs still haven’t said whether they’ll have dedicated European servers or — if they do — whether or not the Founder’s pack stuff you buy for the American servers will transfer across.

Actually, the devs have said that when they setup European servers, you will get a one-time chance to transfer to the new servers with everything you’ve acquired. It’s in the June 15th Developer Update.

yup, the devs said this:
“Okay European players, here is the answer you have been looking for: Yes you can buy the Founders Package and you will never be blocked from continuing to play on the North American servers. Also if we are able to set up servers in your region you will be given a onetime opportunity to transfer to those regions servers taking everything you own with you.”

It’s amazing how the “free to play” policy manages to make free games sound less appealing than games that cost money.

We all know that the developers can’t make the game for free, so they are going to try to extract the money from us somehow and, quite simply, all of the possibilities for that eventuality are distinctly less agreeable than my simply paying up-front.

(Admittedly some for-money games also want to serve advertisements and the like, which is even worse, but they can go *&$% themselves…)

The problem with is that most multiplayer games these days are released with a grind based unlock system anyway, or have DLC with new weapon unlocks. The “up-front” multiplayer market oftentimes discriminates against those who don’t pay more than F2P games who, when done well, don’t allow a player to buy anything they couldn’t earn in game.

unlocks don’t bother me for some reason. It adds to the fun if done well. Battlefield isn’t the greatest example (they now let you pay for unlocks) but I had fun there. Most unlocked weapons were different but not overpowered and there was no need to buy more stuff.

It’s probably a little nitpicky and I’m not sure it will alleviates any of your concerns, but the mechs don’t actually give you any experience boost. It does give you a boost of 25% to your in-game currency earnings when using that mech. That and the unique skin is the only difference from the mechs that will be available to everyone at launch.

I’m hopefully optimistic that they balance it properly, and it seems like the devs are taking the concerns on-board. I might just be drinking the Kool-Aid though…

This is a bit that I posted on their forums and it got locked. (I thought it was a constructive post complaining about the value for money the game was offering. But hey, if you disagree with someone, silence them?)

Just spending $5 in Tribes:Ascend gives you 50% more progression points for life.
Spend $120 here and you get it for– three months? That makes me figure you’re going to sell those for like $10 a month instead of giving it as a thanks for spending something instead of just being a free player.
…
Here, you get a badge and some “special” mechs. The mechs give more progression points, but ONLY if you use those mechs.
…
If it doesn’t look like I’ll get value for money, I’ll just spend nothing at all.

As far as F2P games go in payment models it’s Tribes:Ascend & Dota > Bloodline Champions > huge gap > League of Legends > huge gap > World of Tanks and those f2p battlefield games.
This is looking like it’s going to be somewhere between LoL and WoT’s horrible ripping off of customers.

In Tribes and Dota it’s like “Hey, we made this awesome game! Play if it if you want. Oh, you want to buy something too? Thanks so much, you really didn't have to! We love you for it, though! Here is some extra big bonuses too just for being so nice."
In LoL it's like "Enjoy grinding for 1,000 hours and still only having half the heroes and runes you need, or pay ridiculous money."
In WoT it's like "Lol, you wanted core features for free? No, too bad, pay per month. Want to be competitive? Pay even more for cash only items."

Um, maybe you should play WoT before passing judgement. All paying per month gives you is more xp/money earned, you can unlock anything you like, premium just makes it quicker. And you really don’t need to pay to be competitive, that really is complete bullshit.

Tribes:Ascend works the same way, you can unlock everything just by playing, but it takes a lot less time if you just pay.

I did play WoT. Why would I use it as a comparison out of all the other f2p games if I hadn’t?

You have to pay monthly in order to group up and play with friends.
How is playing with friends not a core feature of an online game? In every other game I’ve played I have a friends list, can group up, and join the match making with friends except that one. I’m assuming they changed this? You make it sound like they had.
Also the APCR ammo gives a massive edge. It’s pay2win.

Some people tried to tell me LoL has a fair payment model. It’s $8 per hero, or tons of grind.
I’ve played 2500 games of LoL, and each game averages 30 minutes. That’s 1250 of play and I don’t have 80% of the GAMEPLAY content.
Some will say you don’t have to unlock all the heroes, but you do. I was in the top 250 of the solo queue ladder. Picking and counter picking is 90% of the win. Icefrog and Valve understand this and have all the heroes free in dota2. Riot are greedy and would rather have their game suffer as a result.

Firstly, you can group up without paying, you can just group up more if you do. Secondly, gold ammo gives hardly any advantage, a better player will still win and a same-tiered tank is just as easy to hurt with or without gold ammo, all gold ammo can do is somewhat improve your odds against a superior opponent, hardly pay to win. Everything WoT does is geared towards making it advantageous to pay, but it doesn’t even come close to pay to win.

I’m won’t dispute what you say about LoL, I haven’t played it (hate dota genre) so can’t judge.

Unfortunately the OP is correct, you cannot form a platoon (i.e. group) with friends unless one of you has a Premium account.

Additionally the ACPR is maybe only a slight advantage on low tiers, but come Tier X, it’s the “I win” option. At T X damaging another T X tank (generally) requires hitting their week spots, and even then, if they’re angled properly you might not be able to do anything to them without out-maneuvreing them. E.g. an IS4/IS7 cannot reliably frontally penetrate a properly angled Maus with standard ammo. Loading up some gold ammo will blast that Maus to pieces however.

Once you start playing Clan Wars, where everyone is in either a T X heavy or a T 8 arty, you basically need gold ammo or you’re wasting a spot on your team. Any serious clan will actually require you to load up on gold ammo before a match. I’m thankfully in a non-serious clan, but I’ve experimented with an without gold ammo in Clan Wars and I can tell you gold ammo is basically required to be competative. Yes a good player will still make an impact without, but what if the enemy team has a good player with gold ammo? Guess who’ll do better? Turning up to a clan match with no gold ammo would be like turning up to a World of Warcraft raid with no flasks, no potions and no buffs.

As soon as you reach the end game, World of Tanks is not just Pay to Win – it’s Pay to Compete. And it’s a horrific rip off.

I only play the odd random match for fun now. And I no longer buy any gold.

Actually you can platoon with one person without having a premium account, they patched that in quite a long time ago. Higher tiers are easily supportable with a lower tier tank, especially if you aren’t terrible. As for Clan Wars, they are shit anyway.

And if you can’t pen an angled maus with an is7/4, wait till it turns its turret to face you, you can pen that. Or, you know, move.

It does appear, though, that MWo does not have the magic money only ammo though. Everything may be unlockable with grind only.

However, I find it incredibly seedy to ask for that money without showing how many hours and how many dollars it really costs to upgrade your mech.

Like: Path of Exile, when they put up preorder beta, they also had free weekends to try it out and they put a few items in their cash shop so you knew exactly how much you could buy with your preorder game cash. (They were pretty reasonable prices, I think.)
Here, you’re really gambling and I have a terrible vibe given that based off this all I can do is guess that mechs cost around $15 and it’ll be like $5-$10 for a 50% boost similar to WoT. It looks like they’re looking at WoT system, and not TF2/dota2/T:A, so, yeah, bad vibe like I said.

I also hate when someone says “A better player will make up for…”. What if two players are equally skilled and just one of them has the $-only item? APCR is a pretty clear advantage. I’ve tried them myself. You go from being unable to pen some things at any front-ish angle to one shotting them with some HE guns.

I also paypal charged back WoT and they just kept recharging it and permabanned me.

However, regarding hypothetical duals: what if the Maus player is really good and angles his turret between shots? Also, hitting turret instead of the mantlet is difficult at medium+ range. And moving is sometimes not an option. (I have been in this situation, pinned down, facing an excellent Maus player and unable to penetrate anywhere on him with standard AP)

Yes, there are lots of variables and you certainly don’t have to use gold Ammo to win in such an encounter, but that’s not the point, the Gold Ammo would make the encounter a cakewalk. Hence, it’s Pay to Win. A nice simple phrase which sums up the situation – without gold ammo you’ll struggle, and with gold ammo you win reliably. Pay to Win.

Yes Clan Wars is crap but it’s effectively the end-game. WoW Raiding is also crap the majority of the time, but it’s also indisputably the end-game.

I didn’t say anything about not being able to support high Tiers without premium by the way. I have no issue with Premium Accounts. My major gripe is Gold Ammo. As far as I’m concerned the whole concept of Gold Ammo warrants a big gold 88mm shell straight up the arse of whoever came up with it.

It’s a total slap in the face of a concept, it’s just a blatent attempt to rip off the players for something that ruins the game balance by negating the affect of armour and good play. I have no issues with premium tanks or accounts (I have a Type-59 and a Lowe [from when it was cheaper] and a Churchill in my garage) but I draw the line at blatent Pay-To-Win mechanics like Gold Ammo.

I can probably claim to be more experienced in clan wars/high tier than anyone else here, being part of one of the most successful clans participating in clan wars. A tier 10 can hurt another tier 10 without undue difficulty, there are balance problems specific to certain tanks courtesy of the typical power creep you see in games like these (read: Maus/E-100), but those are another issue. Gold ammo used in clan wars is a way of increasing certainty of penetration against a weak spot, or increasing the chance of penetrating at ranges you don’t have the luxury of aiming properly at. Gold ammo doesn’t make the difference between penetration or not unless you’re in a tank multiple tiers lower than your opponent, hence what I said.

A properly angled Maus for instance is equally impenetrable to normal or gold ammo, there are particular places you need to aim for whichever ammunition you’re using, and even then an unlucky penetration roll will see your shots bounce no matter how high your penetration is on paper.

My clan doesn’t use gold ammo exclusively in clan wars. In an important battle obviously we will, since every possible edge is required when a lot is at stake, however small. We don’t automatically have more trouble when not using gold ammo, nor do we automatically have no trouble penetrating enemy takes when we are using gold ammo.

I don’t want to argue all day, but your post seems to be saying that Gold Ammo doesn’t make any difference to winning yet at the same time giving several situations in which Gold Ammo gives you a serious advantage (firing at range, targeting weak spots, etc.) and admitting that your clan uses it in important matches to tip the odds.

This seems to be exactly what it means to be Pay to Win. You pay to get a significant advantage!

So much misrepresentation and/or misreading of what I actually said, this could almost be the official WoT forums. Gold ammo makes no difference to winning or losing, good players win on WoT, bad players lose. It gives minor advantages in a small number of scenarios, differences to the tune of a few percent better chance of penetrating. My clan uses it to slightly improve the odds in important games because not taking an advantage is stupid, however small. There we go, I’ve emboldened the important bits to help you out this time. Gold ammo is a laughably small factor in a game of many large factors, I see players in random battles every day who think gold ammo can compensate for their lack of ability. It doesn’t.

Hm. You know in track times with cars, one car is often one one hundredth of a second faster than another on a 1:30 lap? Or even a on a 8:00 lap?

one one hundredth of a second on a 1:30 lap is 0.06%, right? 5% difference is a lot more than that. That’s winning or losing.

It’s worse when you consider that killing someone in one less shot means they could have fired one more shot. That one more shot they fired could have killed you meaning they never died. They could have gone on to kill much more with that one hit left on them.

I wouldn’t call T:A exemplary when it comes to F2P progression, since a non-boosted account will still take a few weeks just to get all the classes (although those classes are generally more specialized, the initial three will generally be able to perform just about any task), but I’ll agree it manages to make their actual payments worthwile and fair. In terms of F2P done right, Dota 2 and TF2 probably beat it, due to providing you with all basic stuff (all classes and heroes) right from the start.

This seems awful, though.
When I read the headline, I expected a T:A-style $30 “VIP pack” that gives you early access along with a bit more in-game currency and perks than you would normally. I didn’t expect a bunch of overpriced stuff (as exemplified by your post) along with a bunch of marks calling me out for wasting my money.

edit: Actually, looks like their “Elite” pack is a lot more comparable to the aformentioned “VIP pack”. Providing you with the same early access as the other Founders packs, along with $40 of in-game currency, for $30.

Somewhat agree. It’s difficult without VIP, but VIP is only $5. Plus, with that $5 you can get like 3-6 weapons on the daily sales which is probably half of what you need.
It’s the best I’ve seen FPS wise.

One issue may be that the progression is just poor for unskilled players. I average 2k-5k per match, but I know if you’re not that good it can be as little as 500 average with VIP. A 50xp/minute minimum reward would be nice to level that out. Then again, you can always just repair and drop mines all day.
At the rate I earn xp in T:A, I can actually unlock every single class in one long day of play(like 14 hours). That seems incredibly fair to me. But yeah, at the other hand, some people earn 1/5th the xp I do so it could take them 75 hours. Still, 75 hours for all classes out of only 9 seems “okay”.

So, I’d put T:A as equal with dota2 and tf2. While TF2 has some pluses over T:A, T:A has pluses over TF2.(T:A lets you pick things for free, while TF2 is random. Doesn’t TF2 also have WAY more items banned in competitive play?)

I’d say getting a lot for $5 makes it exemplary, even if what you get for absolutely nothing isn’t that great.

But my point was value for money, and not what you get for free. It’s what you get for a nominal amount without a company trying to carrot and stick you, ripping you off, and trying to bleed you dry.
I think it’s ideal when a F2P game requires a small investment. That’s the balance between people not wanting to spend anything, and spending $100 and feeling like they wasted their money.

And their elite pack is really just selling you beta. I mean you get $10 more sure, but their $30 will probably give you $40 of points when the game goes live too. I got the $40 pack for LoL assuming champions would cost $1-$2, and they instead cost $8.
It only gives 1 month of that 50% progression points boosting. With Tribes it’s a life time of it for any purchase amount.
What I can deduct from $120 pack giving you 3 months of +50% progression points is that they’re probably going to sell that at $5-$10 a month, which is just plain ridiculous.
It’s also not clear what these mechs are. Are they stronger? Then it’s pay2win. They don’t say. It’s a mystery. It’s like buying snake oil. No, wait, it’s like gambling. This is wrong. It really feels like they’re trying to rip people poor devoted fans to MechWarrior! It gives me the most awful vibe.

And I’m not saying I won’t play the game, but I certainly won’t spend money on it. There’s a difference. These companies have to give me value for money, and not make playing as a free player frustrating as I’m going to give them money only because I want to, not have to.

The top scorer gets something like +50% xp on the winning team. Or maybe it’s +25%. I’m really certain your match achievements(not just the first time bonus xp awards) and credits earned have to do with the score as well.
They haven’t revealed their stats, but individually performance really, really, really matters more than any F2P game I’ve played. You get insane XP if you’re good.

If it was based just off time in a match, I wouldn’t get 5k in a single match(not counting first win of the day bonus, of course.) while others get 500.

T:A really isn’t the best model of free-to-play at the moment. As a thoroughly average player, who middles on the scoreboard the majority of the time, I earn roughly 650 EXP per match, and that is with VIP boost. It gets frustrating because I know that the better players, who already have everything, are cruising through the game earning 3k+ EXP per match, while playing the game as a paying customer makes me feel like a beggar. I’m forced to be a miser with my EXP, and after two months of playing about an hour each day, plus the $20 I spent initially, I have unlocked one class, three weapons, and a few gadgets. If I am an average player, I should feel like I am progressing at a normal pace, especially if I paid real money. Don’t get me wrong, the game is good, but it’s plagued with many issues that need to be fixed before I can say it’s a complete and engaging experience.

There should really be like a minimum of getting 50 xp a minute(boosted), so a 20 minute match gives at least 1k.

To me it’s awesome, as I usually earn a ton.. They could even it up more though. But still, the cost of stuff for real gold is super reasonable. In most games it’s like $3-$8 for a gun. T:A has a sale every day where you can get them for like $0.75-$1.5. That’s what MICROtransactions are supposed to be.

Still, even at 650 average a match, that’s only like 25 hours to unlock all the classes, isn’t it? And they added that patch where after you unlock the classes, maxing out the gear is much much easier.

In retrospect due to that desperate between players, it shouldn’t rank as high as dota2.

LoL isn’t too bad. Random heroes available each week for free encourages play variety and if you really like a hero then buy them with free IP points.
By the time I’ve saved enough IP to buy a hero I know exactly which one I’ll be good at and make a solid purchase knowing I can play that hero and not just hoarding heroes for the hell of it.
You don’t need many more than two or three heroes and saving for those comes quick.

The LoL style payment works perfectly for me. I’ve never felt at a disadvantage because I didn’t buy something.

The free rotation is okay for casual play. It’s completely unacceptable, so is the amount of grind required, to play competitively.

Also, I did put LoL in the lower middle, there. It could be worse. At least the only money only things are cosmetic only.
It’s not higher because of poor value for money. The heroes, while taking too long to grind, aren’t worth $8 either.

In T:A You can quickly get to a point where you have all you want, and play for fun. In LoL, you can never stop spending money or grinding. It has too much gameplay effecting content at too high cost.

Compared to the T:A model, and especially the beta starter package it had (has?), these amounts seem extortionate. I was looking forward to this game, as I absolutely adored MW4, but when I got this “offers” e-mail, I was immediately put off.

But when it looks like if I’ll spend $30, the game is going to just keep trying to milk and milk me more and more endlessly instead of being grateful I didn’t just play for free like I’m supposed to be able to, then I’m not interested.

I can only guess they’re going to make you pay $10 a month to play with friends, too.

You guys are overreacting in a way only the internet hive mind can. T:A had a 30 dollar buy in during the beta. It was a good deal, and after a few economy overhauls those resources you purchased with the 30 bucks could last you a long time with some patience and skill. That buy in was COMPLETELY optional, just like MWO’s buy in. Also, for most players it was a completely blind pre-order. I had no idea how far 30 bucks would go in T:A. From my WoT’s experience, I anticipated it wouldn’t last long at all (since gold is absurdly expensive in that game) but it did.

Just because there’s a 60 and 120 dollar tier doesn’t mean they’re fucking extorting you. That’s like saying all those kickstarters were ripoffs because they had multiple pay tiers for a game we have no idea will be good or not.

We still don’t know how MWO’s economy is going to work, but typically with these types of F2P games, early adopters end up spending way less money in the long run . You guys act like T:A’s VIP bonus is such an amazing good natured deal, but remember the entire game is balanced around people having VIP bonuses. You basically HAVE to pay if you want to progress at a reasonable pace in that game. By your guys’ retarded ass standards that’s extortion right there.

With all that said, we need to wait and see what the economy will be like. It all comes down to that. Games like WoT get you to spend money at every turn and the exchange rate between the dollar and gold is disgusting. It remains to be seen whether MWO will be like that. If you’re a big Mechwarrior fan (like myself) then get a founders package. If you’re not, then wait till the game is released and play it for free. It’s as simple as that.

I’m pretty sure that all purchases of anything are optional, including food and housing.

My argument wasn’t that I’m being forced to purchase something, but it was that it’s poor value for money. Both what’s at plain face looks like poor value(even the RPS post notes that), and the fact that we have no idea what the ingame shops costs are without already being in the beta.

Also, T:A was super ridiculously generous with beta keys so it was impossible to not get one before trying it out. You didn’t need to buy the early access pack.

Even if you didn’t know what the prices would be in T:A, which you didn’t, you did get to play and get a feel for the progression and what +50% would be.

And “Spending way less money” is relative to how much they choose to (or not to) rip everyone off.

The other point that there was a bad vibe that this would be like WoT and not T:A, TF2, or Dota2. Lots of others are getting that vibe too, not just me, so it’s not like I’m crazy.

Your last point is what really drives a stake through my heart. It feels like they’re trying to rip off people who have been waiting so long for a modern MW game, not trying to make a great game for them.

And saying T:A being balanced around having VIP is like saying HL is balanced around people owning the game. Well, yeah, that’s fine because the price is reasonable. $10 every month for an arena game isn’t reasonable.

You get custom skins, are supporting the Mechwarrior game we’ve been waiting years for, and are getting a shit ton of heavily discounted in game currency, as well as a rather lengthy XP booster. The value of that is subjective, so I don’t see how you and the fuck ton of the other whiners could be getting vibes one way or the other about something that you either feel obligated to buy or don’t. The only reason the 120 dollar founder pack exists is because of fan demand.

Like I said before this is not unlike the kickstarter price tiers we’ve been seeing, people may have been able to play T:A before buying in, but nobody can see the kickstarter games before they donate their money. It’s a risk you’re either willing to take or not.

Your logic doesn’t make any sense to me, but I’ll be damned if my most anticipated game will get the kind of unfair judgement it’s getting dealt now because of assumptions made on insufficient data. You can take my word with a grain of salt because I got the 60 dollar founders pack, but if the game launches and turns out to be a seedy money sinkhole like WoT, then I will happily and vocally tell people to steer way clear of this game. But until that’s determined, and until any information says otherwise, I’ll remain excited for this game.

Are you sure it’s the MechWarrior game we’ve all been waiting for and that it’s (possibly) worth $200?
The game does look pretty nice, but frustration over the developers diehard agenda to drain you dry turns a pretty nice game like WoT into something intolerable.

I like the Business models like Dota2, T:A, and TF2 that encourage everyone to pay a little, instead of the (which is somehow traditional) method of having 99.9% of players spending nothing because nothing gives good value, and you don’t want to have to keep paying non stop, and milking that silly 0.1% of everything they have because they don’t care about the bad value and just want any edge they can get.
It’s not good for the 99.9% playing for free and it not good for the 0.1% spending hundreds.

Like I said the 120 dollar price tier exists because of fan demand. Perhaps you and many others saw that and assumed they were price gouging. That’s understandable, but also a bit unreasonable. How could these developers know that by adding a price tier simply because people are willing to pay it they would gain the ill will of everyone who aren’t. These guys ARE part of a business.

That said, the 99 percent (mostly) free player base and the 1 percent vanity, xp booster, and weapon unlock buyers model is nice, especially opposed to games like WoT that will really have you struggling unless your dumping 7 bucks every other week into it. But the line between those is extremely blurry, which virtually NOBODY points out. All of the games you mentioned will still make you feel obligated to pay SOMETHING, even if it isn’t constant. T: A and TF2 both allow you to buy weapons with real money, and T:A’s entire arsenal of unlocks can be bought. And despite the reasonable price of entry for T:A’s VIP booster, the temporary XP boosters are still there.

MWO is going to have to launch before we find out what kind of economics we’ll be dealing with. Gold rounds aside (it is arguable how much of a scam they are) WoT’s seedy free XP transfer and crew training means, in addition to xp boosters that you pretty much need, you gotta be constantly dumping money into the game unless you want to grind through shitty stock tanks. I’m seriously hoping MWO is not like that, even if it is, I’ll still play, but I’ll be sure to tell everyone I meet, that the game is a total scam.

People are really ‘grumbly’ (is that even an english word?) about the whole “free to play” business model, whatever its implications – immediate or not – for the gamers, the market and whatnot. It’s like shooting down anything EA-related before launch, in my opinion.

Some businessfolk are really missing some oportuinities to make ammends here, this is clearly a loud minority that can wreak havoc to its peers, whether these peers have a formed opinion about a given game or don’t.

The example that gets cited time and time again around here is Battlefield: Heroes, which is an awful game with an even worse business model. I got about 10 minutes enjoyment out of it and then went to pastures greener. Unfortunately, a lot of RPS commenters seem to think that it’s somehow representative of every F2P online game.

The vocals here seem to think that all F2P games are going to be ripoffs like BF: Heroes and WoT, and think any game that isn’t Tribes: Ascend is a piece of shit. Then they see that you can pay 120 bucks for 4 custom skins and credit farm mechs and that just tears it for them. Nevermind the 120 buy in is for SERIOUS Mechwarrior fans and gives them no advantage other than a large upfront sum of heavily discounted in-game currency. For all the haters this is no different from a kickstarter project or a pre-order for a collectors edition.

Also it isn’t just ‘4 reskinned ‘Mechs with a C-Bill boost’ – It’s 4 reskinned prime variants, 4 mechback slots, 80 dollars of ingame money, three months of premium accounts, a tag beside your name in the forums, a tag beside your name in game, and your name in the credits for the game.

I’d just like to point out to all those whiners who say it’s too much money..

The developers ASKED the community if they’d like a package like this, and how much it should be worth. And when they only offered a $30 and $60 version with a couple neat incentives, people complained there wasn’t a more expensive version, so they added a $120 as a special surprise on press release day.

As for Pay 2 Win vs. Free 2 Play: If you look very, very closely at some of the preview footage, you’ll notice that ‘Mech chassis are things you can buy with real money, but components (including special components like ER PPCs instead of PPCs, XL Engines instead of just Engines, etc.) are ALL purchased with the in-game currency only. The pricing model is heavily based on LoL: cosmetics and alternate champs/mechs you can get for money, but not power; player skill and runes/enhanced gear, however, is only for those who actually practice the game.

And there IS a huge benefit to Free 2 Play that people rarely consider, but Piranha Games has repeatedly assured us will be the case: since Piranha Games only makes money on this game if people buy new toys in the in-game store and become a loyal fanbase, they HAVE to keep patching the game, HAVE to keep adding content and game modes and whatnot, because otherwise the fan base will disappear and they’ll lose money. Compare that to a AAA game payed up front, where there’s one or two patches and then the game is abandoned by the company… I’ll take free to play.

Oh, and for anyone bitching that this isn’t MechWarrior 5 like they wanted, this company TRIED to make that game, but all the publishers turned it down. So, they had to do something else: come up with a game using an alternate publishing/distribution model because the big publishers aren’t willing to take risks with niche games, and come up with a game design that would be easy to produce quickly (multiplayer only ‘Mech battles only) but also easy to expand into eventual single player campaigns, alternate modes, NPC targets to fight, etc. They came up with a brand new publisher in order to distribute it. And up until now, they’ve been making design decisions based on their passion for BattleTech, rather than what would be safe and marketable. Those things might not make them indie, but it gets them enough indie creds in my book to warrant spending $120 on their experimental, passion-fueled, not-sure-if-it-will-sell game.

So, after good old pay-to-own, we got pay-to-play, free-to-play, pay-to-win, and now we have the awesomeness of pay-to-wait unleashed upon us? That’s too much, I say, too much!

That said, I’m very excited about this game. The gameplay videos make it sound a lot like good old Mechwarrior, and I loved those as a kid… might actually fork out the $30 bucks for it. Still undecided, tho.

Cant wait to play this. It is more Simlike than any of the previous Mechwarrior games, and it makes me happy. Just being able to see the targetting reticle lag behind as it tries to keep up with your torso twist, meaning you can instantly snap off shots, which varies between mech on how fast it can acquire targets, making many playstyles relavent.

There is nothing Pay to win about this. Everything is available to everyone whether you buy or not. You simply get faster progression by paying and supporting the developers.

People who never buy anything do nothing to keep the game afloat, and im more than happy for them to have limits.

This will be an ever evolving game with new maps, mechs, weapons being released over time. They have to pay for that somehow.

You know what’s the only thing I’m afraid of regarding this game?
That it’ll have battletech balance deeply in the **** and by this messing completely roles of the weapons, mechs, and allowing creation of ultimate, maxed-out setups.
I’m very tempted to buy the $120 pack, but no chance to try the game out makes me think 10 times before spending my cash on something that might be potentially an ignorant crap put into Mechwarrior skins.

As such they are making the game more about skill. All mechs have a torso rotation speed, and also an aiming speed seperate for arms and torso mounted weapons. These vary based on mech. A fast mech will be able to keep a slower mech constantly attempting to line up a shot, and he wont be able to do an “alpha strike” because his arms and torso mounted weapons are always in flux trying to keep up with the lighter mech.

They have also fixed lasers, now they fire a stream, and for full damage, you must keep that stream on target, requiring good aim, and also keeps people from the 40 laser alpha strike of doom tactic.

On top of that All Mechs in the games are Variants with certain critical slots. So 1 Catapult variant will be the typical LRM based mech, then another could be a Laser variant. Another could offer less armor for more weapons and such. Each Variant needs to be purchased Seperately and has its own personally hardpoints that it offers, making it unique. If that mech doesnt offer weapon hardpoints in the left torso, then you cant put them there. Which also ups the tactics once more, because people will learn the layouts and target critical areas. Such as that Hunchback with the Left Torso loaded with lots of ammo just asking to be destroyed.